By Naadiya Adams

26:03:2021

It has been over two years since almost 43,000 foreigners from across the globe, including South Africans, and many of them children, have been detained in Syria without a trial.

The detainees have alleged links to ISIS and remain imprisoned in inhumane, degrading conditions by authorities in the region. The detainees were arrested during the fall of the Islamic State “caliphate,” according to Human Rights Watch and are being held by the
Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria.

Of those imprisoned, 27 500 are children, most of whom are in locked camps and at least 300 of these kids are in squalid men’s prisons.

Radio Islam spoke to Letta Tayler, Associate Crisis and Conflict Director at Human Rights Watch who confirmed that at least 30 of the detained nationals are South African. Of these, around 20 of them are just children. She says conditions are dire.

“We have children and mothers locked up in their camps where the water is often contaminated with worms… The toilets are so awful that families are actually building their own facilities.”

A relative of a detainee said that her detained family member, who was a young mother was suicidal. She wrote that daily life in the camps made her want to “scream from the top of my lungs”:

“It’s mentally exhausting…never gets better here. Always worse… the majority of the children in the camp are sick. Almost every day something bad happens. Children trapped in burning tents and die… We have water tanks that contain worms. The toilets are dirty, so people started to build their own toilets.”

The captives suffer from rising levels of violence and falling levels of vital aid including medical care, while the food remains insufficient. Tayler says there’s no education at all and children are unwell with many of them coughing.

According to Tayler, Human Rights Law states that everyone is innocent until judged and all of those captured deserve to be brought before a court.

“Children associated with armed conflict are to be considered victims first and foremost. And home countries must do what they can to help get these children out of these camps and prisons.”

Tayler says that by countries not assisting in the matter, they’re helping keep these people imprisoned and throwing away the key.

Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria is a coalition that was pivotal in the fall of the Islamic State in Syria, they say they do not have the money to take care of the prisoners and are begging home countries to take responsibility for their people.

“Governments should be helping to fairly prosecute detainees suspected of serious crimes and free everyone else, not helping to create another Guantanamo,” says Tayler.

Chia Kurd of the Autonomous Administrations says, “The international community, in particular the countries who have citizens in the camps and prisons, are not assuming their responsibility. This issue, if not solved, will not only affect us but the entire world.”

While many countries remain silent, Russia which happens to have close ties with South Africa, is leading nations with the repatriation of their citizens from these squalid prisons, having already brought back hundreds of detainees from Syria, who will now be prosecuted in their home country. Meanwhile, the US coalition is assisting in building prisons and considering options to alleviate the problem.

According to Tayler, there are resources South Africa can use to bring back the South Africans being held in North-East Syria, and Tayler says they would all fit into a single bus.

Only 25 countries are known to have repatriated any nationals from North-East Syria and most have brought home or helped return just a few, primarily orphans or young children, in some cases without their mothers.